How Cheap Can You Go?

[bracconiere]

ROTFL! I couldn't work for that. I am a retired ship's Bosun and I usually made around $90k/yr. If I had to live on $7.25/hr I wouldn't bother working. I would make myself a sign and find a good intersection. "Please help with whatever you can spare! Just got a margin call from my broker!" LOL. Or, "Sure, I'm just a bum. But if you give generously, I will be a happy bum!" Or how bout "Will work for sex and beer. Or just give me a buck or two, whatevah."

i'm living on $14k a year right now.....and getting rich doing it, thanks to my training in cheap drugs...

 

[bracconiere]

well as usual i'm bored, and called jeferson feed store in new orleans, which by the way costs me .10 a minute, lol...whole barley is something they can special order, call tomorrow when Neil is there, and talk to him to get a couple 50lb bags....

edit: here's the link to the contact number, they told me call back tomorrow and ask for neil

http://www.jeffersonfeed.com/locations/#contact

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Not interested in cheap. Aiming for the best beer I can possibly make with my available equipment, ingredients, and processes. Going cheap invariably cuts corners on quality. NOt that you can't make decent beer on the cheap, but you're not making commercial quality beer on the cheap.

 

[Miraculix]

Not interested in cheap. Aiming for the best beer I can possibly make with my available equipment, ingredients, and processes. Going cheap invariably cuts corners on quality. NOt that you can't make decent beer on the cheap, but you're not making commercial quality beer on the cheap.

I'd prefer my cheapo saison over A LOT of commercial beers.

I'd say, within certain limits, it is entirely possible to make great and dirt cheap beer. Of course, a NEIPA is out of question, but everything pale without huge IBUs is definitely possible to brew with very low costs. Especially stuff that relies heavily on unmalted grains as adjuncts like saison and belgians.

.... now that I think about it, same grainbill, add 10% roasted barley, change the yeast, you got a nice stout.

 

[bleme]

Not interested in cheap. Aiming for the best beer I can possibly make with my available equipment, ingredients, and processes. Going cheap invariably cuts corners on quality. NOt that you can't make decent beer on the cheap, but you're not making commercial quality beer on the cheap.

There are a lot of things you can do, like buying in bulk and farming your own yeast, that cut cost without sacrificing quality. It isn't always one or the other.

 

[Velnerj]

It's a hobby not a money saver

 

[Cavpilot2000]

There are a lot of things you can do, like buying in bulk and farming your own yeast, that cut cost without sacrificing quality. It isn't always one or the other.

To a degree, yes, but even buying grains in bulk: if you are fixated on as cheap as possible, you’re going to buy the discounted sack of no-name pale malt that’s been sitting at the LHBS for two years and use it in your Pilsner rather than a fresh sack of importer Barke Pilsner.
Some might say the quality will be the same, but they also probably have dead palates too.

 

[bleme]

It's a hobby not a money saver

Another either/or fallacy. I can guarantee you that bracconiere is saving loads of money. Now, "It's a hobby not a time saver" would probably be accurate 100% of the time!

 

[bleme]

To a degree, yes, but even buying grains in bulk: if you are fixated on as cheap as possible, you’re going to buy the discounted sack of no-name pale malt that’s been sitting at the LHBS for two years and use it in your Pilsner rather than a fresh sack of importer Barke Pilsner.
Some might say the quality will be the same, but they also probably have dead palates too.

Nobody is arguing that you can't intentionally sabotage beer, just that it isn't a rich-men-only club. It is one of the few hobbies that is open to ANY income level.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

To a degree, yes, but even buying grains in bulk: if you are fixated on as cheap as possible, you’re going to buy the discounted sack of no-name pale malt that’s been sitting at the LHBS for two years and use it in your Pilsner rather than a fresh sack of importer Barke Pilsner.
Some might say the quality will be the same, but they also probably have dead palates too.

Caveat: I'm not saying I think throwing money away needlessly is a good policy. I won't buy the cheapest bulk malt I can get my hands on, but I will buy the malt I want as cheaply as I can get it.
For instance, I use Weyermann Barke Munich for my Munich malt. It costs more than many others. But I buy it through my club's annual Big Buy so I can get it cheaper than MSRP. If I can get that malt for $60 a sack vs the cheapest Munich I can get from "wherever" at $40 a sack, I'm still going to get the "better" malt and pay a little more for it. BUT, I won't pay $80 for the same sack just because I know that I can get it for $60 under the right circumstances.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Nobody is arguing that you can't intentionally sabotage beer, just that it isn't a rich-men-only club. It is one of the few hobbies that is open to ANY income level.

No, I agree with you, but my response is in line with the original question of the post - "How cheap can you make 'drinkable' beer?"
Pretty darn cheap, but "drinkable" is not good enough for me, so I'll pay more to make better beer (mainly by using top quality, hence more expensive, ingredients).

But to each his own. We all have different priorities.

 

[dwhite60]

This is really like asking, "How cheap a hooker can you find?".

You REALLY want to go there? I was approached by one in Tel Aviv that wanted
thirty shekels, at the time that was seven dollars.

Uh, no!

All the Best,
D. White

 

[day_trippr]

"And BOOM goes the dynamite!"

 

[Bilsch]

GF loves to garden and wants to grow us some hops and I am like, yay. Her gardening results have been underwhelming so far but hey, if she can produce some hops for me, that will save some few bucks, anyway.

I’ve been growing backyard hops for quite a few years now and have gotten the costs down to only about $30-$40 a pound. Not including my labor. Except this year where my harvest was wiped out by hail a week before I was supposed to pick em.
But I wish you all the good luck growing hops inexpensively.

 

[grampamark]

Who is the Grand Poobah of Homebrew? You know, the one who gets to declare, definitively, without challenge, what good beer really is.

Asking for a friend...

 

[bleme]

I’ve been growing backyard hops for quite a few years now and have gotten the costs down to only about $30-$40 a pound. Not including my labor. Except this year where my harvest was wiped out by hail a week before I was supposed to pick em.
But I wish you all the good luck growing hops inexpensively.

The trick is to have a friend that grows more hops than he can use...

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Who is the Grand Poobah of Homebrew? You know, the one who gets to declare, definitively, without challenge, what good beer really is.

Asking for a friend...

We are each our own Grand Pubah. And for me, the bar is pretty darn high.
As in, 9 out of 10 beers I try from new "craft" micro and nano breweries are either "meh" and completely unremarkable, or poorly made and I wouldn't take home if it were free.
Most "craft" beer these days is mediocre at best. Mark my words - in five years, at least half of the breweries that have popped up in the last five years, will be out of business. Why? Because they make an unremarkable product in a saturated market.

 

[Bilsch]

We are each our own Grand Pubah. And for me, the bar is pretty darn high.
As in, 9 out of 10 beers I try from new "craft" micro and nano breweries are either "meh" and completely unremarkable, or poorly made and I wouldn't take home if it were free.
Most "craft" beer these days is mediocre at best. Mark my words - in five years, at least half of the breweries that have popped up in the last five years, will be out of business. Why? Because they make an unremarkable product in a saturated market.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[grampamark]

We are each our own Grand Pubah. And for me, the bar is pretty darn high.
As in, 9 out of 10 beers I try from new "craft" micro and nano breweries are either "meh" and completely unremarkable, or poorly made and I wouldn't take home if it were free.
Most "craft" beer these days is mediocre at best. Mark my words - in five years, at least half of the breweries that have popped up in the last five years, will be out of business. Why? Because they make an unremarkable product in a saturated market.

“We are each our own Grand Pubah” is a cop out. Seriously. Nobody cares what you think. Nobody cares what I think, either. Would 9 out of 10 craft beer drinkers find your beers good, or unremarkable? How would you know, unless you made your beers available to a wide range of consumers? As homebrewers, even if we’re generous when it comes to sharing our brews, we really don’t get feedback from a wide range of beer drinkers.

One would infer, from your comments, that you are happy with your approach to homebrewing, and are unimpressed by most commercial craft beer. Good for you. You’re one data point. Brew as you wish, in good health, for years to come. Don’t be upset, though, if your personal best practices aren’t met with wide approval from other homebrewers who are just as satisfied with their approach to brewing as you are with yours. If we’re each supposed to decide what’s best for us, to set our own standards, then it’s a matter of “live and let live” isn’t it? I think it is, but can’t help but notice when someone pays lip service to live and let live, but is compelled to add “...but I’d never do it that way”.

In case anyone is wondering, I don’t take the Internet, in general, or special interest message boards, in particular, too seriously. That would include my own deposits which can be found scattered, randomly, around these premises.

 

[GrowleyMonster]

i'm living on $14k a year right now.....and getting rich doing it, thanks to my training in cheap drugs...

HAHA I should have studied harder for all the drug tests I had to take when I was working! BTW I just got done weighing and bagging a pound of hops in half ounce baggies. Is it just me? I kinda felt like a drug dealer LOL.

well as usual i'm bored, and called jeferson feed store in new orleans, which by the way costs me .10 a minute, lol...whole barley is something they can special order, call tomorrow when Neil is there, and talk to him to get a couple 50lb bags....

edit: here's the link to the contact number, they told me call back tomorrow and ask for neil

http://www.jeffersonfeed.com/locations/#contact

Jefferson Feed is the first place I looked up and was going to be the first place I visit. There really are only two feed stores here, JF and Double M. Had a GF who had quite a menagerie... chickens, guineas, ducks, a goose, a peacock, several snakes, one boa constrictor looking fella about 8 feet long, an iguana (she hated it when I told her we ate them in Belize and they were delicious) a rabbit, guinea pigs, mice, (to feed the snakes) a parrot, a cockatoo, parakeets, love birds, a turtle, a possum, a monkey, and I am probably leaving some out. I had a pickup then and she was always needing a ride to Jefferson Feed . Oh yeah the turkey, I forgot about the turkey. These animals weren't food. They were PETS lol! Oh yeah, a dog and a cat, too. And an aquarium full of fish. Which the cat apparently sampled when bored with stealing the dog's food. Anyway I will check with them tomorrow. I have a loft in the workshop that stays bone dry and I can store a sack or two up there until needed.

Let me know the total cost of the call and I will paypal it to you. I don't want to see your expenses go up.

TBH my first batch of all grain will probably be with already malted stuff. I don't want to plug too many variables in at once. But home malting is definitely gonna happen at some point.

 

[bracconiere]

Another either/or fallacy. I can guarantee you that bracconiere is saving loads of money. Now, "It's a hobby not a time saver" would probably be accurate 100% of the time!

damn, how true...takes me 5-6 days to malt...3-4 for sprouting, another 1-2 to dry, then another 1 for kilning....not really much work, but a lot of time...deculming is all i hate about it..and as far as quality, i've been drinking store bought malt, and honestly prefer my homemalt....that's the way it usually works though, save money do it yourself, but you have to do the work yourself....

 

[bracconiere]

How would you know, unless you made your beers available to a wide range of consumers?

you know if i charged $1.99 or something for a twelve pack i'd kick all your asses! most people aren't connoisseurs, their alcoholics! lol

 

[bracconiere]

Let me know the total cost of the call and I will paypal it to you. I don't want to see your expenses go up.

LOL, i was on hold for a while....a good 4 or 5 minutes actually, so 50 cents.....lol

 

[Cavpilot2000]

In case anyone is wondering, I don’t take the Internet, in general, or special interest message boards, in particular, too seriously.

Quote edited for brevity.
You're absolutely right sir! I happen to think I make excellent beer, most of the time, but do I really care what anybody thinks about my beer but me? No. I brew for me. Now, it just so happens that my friends either share a similar palate, or I do make good beer, but none of that really matters. Are my personal standards relevant to you or anybody else? No.
I'm not sure why you might think that my personal practices wouldn't be met with broad approval, but even if so, that doesn't really matter to me.

I don't think, however, that each of us being our own personal grand pubah is at all irrelevant to this thread, since the whole point of the thread is "how cheaply can you make drinkable beer?"

My point is relevant because:
Drinkable is up to each person's taste (our own Grand Pubah). But "drinkable" doesn't mean "good" (again, our own Grand Pubah). Are you sure you only want to set your bar at merely drinkable?
Me? I'd prefer to make good beer rather than something that you can merely drink just for the alcohol value. And good does not often equate with cheap. "Drinkable" does, but again...is that really your goal (per the original post)?

 

[grampamark]

I’ll also be brief.

My point is, you are conflating your definition of “good” with some undefined standard. Nobody decides what’s good for everybody. I think I make good beer, as well. But, as noted, nobody cares what either of us thinks, so our respective definitions are meaningless in the context of this thread.

If someone thinks cheap is good, who are we to argue with them?

 

[bracconiere]

If someone thinks cheap is good, who are we to argue with them?

LOL, i like cheap! and i'm not alone! beware... (or i should say, thanks for the consideration!) damn, i've tried cracked corn from walmart in beer, tasted like vegtables though...

 

[davidabcd]

table beer.

 

[davidabcd]

Is a table beer something you drink at meals?

 

[day_trippr]

It's what puts you under the table

 

[davidabcd]

"Pulling out all the stops"

In the context of what he's saying, he's talking about how cheap he can make beer.